IDENTIFYING CARP

[Newt]

As far as blidness goes: Even completely blind Carp often can feed themselves quite well. I've seen photos of Carp that actually have no eyes, but are otherwise perfectly normal "fat 'n' happy" Carp!

 

I think you are exactly right. Carp have so many excellent sense organs and can feed in such muddy water that I doubt they use their eyes much except for an occasional time when they want to take a bit of food off the surface and I'm not even sure about that.

[poledark]

I think this topic might be the best place to tell this tale..3 of us fishing, I had caught a "big 20" at 3.00, first fish for a month, so we were all on a high.

 

At about 4.30 today, my mate Lee (he of the 3 fish in the net) caught a common carp, "It only has one eye" he said.

 

We weighed it....19.14oz.........reweighed it, still 19.14oz......."damn"

 

 

 

"Just think" said I...............................

 

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"If it had had two eyes, it would have been a twenty"

 

 

For some reason, we all thought that was the funniest thing we had heard for months

 

 

Den

[Vagabond]

My memories of carp go back to the late 1940's and the lean and mean so-called "wildies" we used to catch in farm ponds. The carp illustrated are very similar in shape to those we caught then - although our fish were all of the "common carp" scaling.

 

Our 1940's carp had that same "barbel -like" body shape, big heads and huge tails - and they went like the clappers when hooked. They grew to about 8 lb tops with most sticking at around 5 to 6 lb. All the fish I have seen over ten pounds and claimed as "wildies" look like lean king carp to me.

 

These wildies were long-lived too - and that might be relevant - some I stocked from a local estate lake into a farm pond in the 1950s (no Section 30 then!) were still around in the early 1990s but still weighing in at about 6 lb tops.

 

Must admit I have never seen a mirror carp that shape, but I can't see why they should not exist - without evoking cross breeding or parasites to explain the shape. Gardon Hunter's fish look healthy enough otherwise - good skin, good finnage etc etc

[The Gardon Hunter]

Well Vagabond, I thought I was going mad with no one else ever having seen fish like these and the comments concerning their condition. To me, one or two of the members were well off track remarking on their poor condition - even blindness (where did that come from!!) so you can imagine how glad I was to read your post. Since my original posting I've probably caught 3 or 4 more around 6-7lb each of these type along with the normal 20lb+ mirrors -as we all know them. There is no question, these are a different breed from the rest, and as you mentioned, when caught they go like the clappers. It's probably the offspring of a very old breed which has been in the lake since the year dot and were left in the lake when it was partially drained a few years ago. Obviously in recent times commercial carp from fisheries have been introduced.

 

Poldark, that was a good one and it really did make me laugh. If either you or Vagabond find yourself in France, come and join me to see what you make of these superb fish. There won't be a month long drought I can assure you!!

 

As an aside, if you want to look at damaged or odd fish, watch the Danny Fairbrass Underwater Carp Fishing DVDs starring Lumpy, Popeye, Cut Tale, Parrot, Budgie and the likes. Whatever their abnormality is, they're all in good order.

 

Once again, thanks to all of you for your input.

[carphead100]

Well Vagabond, I thought I was going mad with no one else ever having seen fish like these and the comments concerning their condition. To me, one or two of the members were well off track remarking on their poor condition - even blindness (where did that come from!!) so you can imagine how glad I was to read your post. Since my original posting I've probably caught 3 or 4 more around 6-7lb each of these type along with the normal 20lb+ mirrors -as we all know them. There is no question, these are a different breed from the rest, and as you mentioned, when caught they go like the clappers. It's probably the offspring of a very old breed which has been in the lake since the year dot and were left in the lake when it was partially drained a few years ago. Obviously in recent times commercial carp from fisheries have been introduced.

 

Poldark, that was a good one and it really did make me laugh. If either you or Vagabond find yourself in France, come and join me to see what you make of these superb fish. There won't be a month long drought I can assure you!!

 

As an aside, if you want to look at damaged or odd fish, watch the Danny Fairbrass Underwater Carp Fishing DVDs starring Lumpy, Popeye, Cut Tale, Parrot, Budgie and the likes. Whatever their abnormality is, they're all in good order.

 

Once again, thanks to all of you for your input.

 

Yer I have never seen a fish like the ones pictured in your earlier post!!! But don't see any reason why they aren't simply a newly identified carp....

[Ken L]

But don't see any reason why they aren't simply a newly identified carp....

 

The semi scaleless sides are a sure sign of the strain having been bred as a food fish to be easier to clean.

This alone is enough to rule out any likelyhood of them being a previously unidentified carp species.

 

More likely is the possibility of a non lethal mutation that has got to be fairly common in a single enclosed water. If there are extensive shallow areas or very dence weeds, it could even be an advantagous mutation.

[AnnaWerner]

I bought a fish guide in Germany a couple of years ago, and I was flipping through it recently, and one of the Carp in a picture looked amazingly slim, though not "skinny." It was just strange-shaped. I think the species comes in quite a variety of forms, part of why it's so adaptable.